Getting defensive: Amarillo High unit up to the challenge in 4A playoffs

LEE PASSMORE

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2012 at 10:19 PM

In terms of textbook football, it's hard to beat the prototype that has gotten the Amarillo High Sandies to this point.

While one of the signatures that got AHS coach Mel Maxfield his 200th career win in last week's 30-20 victory against El Paso Chapin in a Class 4A Division II area playoff game is his beloved Wing-T offense, what can get overlooked is what the Sandies have done defensively. Amarillo High had three takeaways and held Chapin to 280 yards, which were as big a factors as any in the victory.

"The way we approach it is that all phases of the game play off each other," Maxfield said. "I know a lot of people want to have as many snaps as possible but we still rely on field position. I think we complement each other well."

With a defense that is giving up 274.5 yards a game, it's no surprise that the Sandies often have short fields to work with when they get the football. Their first five possessions last week started in Chapin territory.

The Sandies scored their first points last weekend when De'vante Rhodes intercepted a pass by Chapin's Seth Gonzales at the Chapin 47-yard line that led indirectly to Amarillo High's first touchdown. Senior defensive end Tanner Crockett, one of the team's top pass rushers, thinks the Sandies set the tone against Chapin with their defense.

"I thought if we just gave our offense a chance to score we'd win," Crockett said. "We can put pressure on the other team and cause them to do what they don't want to do."

The Sandies would like to do the same thing at 2 p.m. Saturday when they return to Midland's Grande Communications Stadium to face powerful Denton Guyer, which finished the regular season ranked No. 7 in Class 4A, in the regional round of the playoffs.

Guyer advanced by beating another powerhouse, Aledo, 42-30, last week.

Amarillo High has faced other ranked teams such as Wichita Falls Rider, Frenship and Stephenville, all of whom are still alive in the playoffs. But Maxfield thinks Guyer is on another level offensively.

"We've played some explosive teams and some phenomenal athletes, but this bunch will present us as a big a challenge as we've faced," Maxfield said. "You don't expect anything less in the third round of the playoffs."

And the Sandies got a taste of it last week. They came up especially big in the fourth quarter after they took a 23-20 lead over Chapin.

They forced a three-and-out with Gonzales running for two yards and throwing two incompletions with just over five minutes left as the Huskies had the ball at their own 27-yard line. As if to draw a reward for their effort, the Sandies scored when a snap sailed into the end zone on the ensuing punt attempt, and AHS linebacker Guy Brown recovered the ball in the end zone to give the Sandies some insurance.

Brown, who has emerged as a playmaker as a senior, was pleased with the defense's performance against Chapin, but feels the Sandies need to step things up against Guyer.

"We played against a good team and we both played hard and it showed in the end and we were rewarded," Brown said. "We're just going to try to be as perfect as we can be this week."

Perhaps it was appropriate that on Chapin's final drive that Gonzales was chased from the pocket and intercepted by Amarillo High junior defensive back Braden Marusak in the end zone to clinch the win. It seems whenever there's a loose football to be had, Marusak's involved.

In Amarillo High's regular season finale, a 55-14 win over Dumas, Marusak forced three fumbles and recovered two of them and intercepted a pass.

"You've got to have the other players that help," Marusak said. "You've got to get pressure on the quarterback. Just because we have these good linemen, their getting pressure helps us make our plays in the defensive backfield."

And if these units all do their job when Denton Guyer has the ball, the Sandies will have a chance.